WILLIAMSBURG

After getting shut out by West Branch on May 23, Mid-Prairie’s baseball team focused on its offense in practice.

The hitting workout paid off.

The Golden Hawks scored 20 runs and had 22 hits in two games last week, including 12 runs and 10 hits in a 12-3 victory at Williamsburg last Friday, May 27.

“What we worked on is hitting,” said Golden Hawks head coach Kyle Mullet.

The emotions were evident when sophomore catcher Brock Harland hit a double in the fourth inning and pointed to the Mid-Prairie dugout happily as he stood on second base. The double began a three-run rally.

Junior outfielder and pitcher Alex Bean had a game-high three hits. He drove in three runs and scored twice. Senior outfielder Will Cavanagh had two hits and drove in two runs.

While the Golden Hawks cranked up their offense, sophomore pitcher Karson Grout, a University of Iowa commit, struck out six in his first start of the season. In two appearances, he has struck out nine batters in five innings.

After taking a 3-1 lead in the first two innings, the Golden Hawks (3-1) blew the game open by scoring three runs in the fourth inning and two runs in the fifth.

A four-run rally in the seventh inning included Cain Brown escaping a rundown not once, but twice, the first time on an attempted pickoff at first base and the second time when he got hung up between second and third bases and wound up pulling into third safely.

Bean delivered a two-run triple in the seventh inning.

Mid-Prairie also played well defensively, picking off two Williamsburg runners and not committing any errors.

Grout picked up his first win of the year, but was pulled after three innings by Mullet in order to limit his pitch count of about 60. He gave up two hits and two runs.

Collin Miller gave up one run and two hits in three innings, and Bean pitched a scoreless inning.

Mid-Prairie 8

Fairfield 6

The Golden Hawks rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat Fairfield on May 24.

Will Cavanagh and Collin Miller each had three hits, leading a Golden Hawks offensive attack that totaled 12 hits one night after they were shut out by West Branch.

Cain Brown had two hits, drove in two runs and scored twice. Brock Harland also had two hits.

Mid-Prairie fell behind 4-1 in the first inning, but scored a run in the second inning and three runs in the fourth to go ahead, 5-4. Fairfield forced extra innings by scoring a run in the sixth to tie it at 6-6. The Golden Hawks scored twice in the ninth inning for the win.

Brown earned the win on the pitching mound, giving up just one run in four innings.